Grand Chord

Grand Chord
Gaya Junction lies on the Grand Chord line
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Indian Railways
Locale	West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh
Termini	Sitarampur Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Junction
Service
Operator(s)	Eastern Railway, East Central Railway
History
Opened	1900
Technical
Line length	450.7 km (280 mi)
Number of tracks	2/3
Track gauge	5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge
Electrification	Electrified
Operating speed	up to 160 km/h (99 mph)
Route map Mughalsarai–Gaya section     to Mughalsarai–Kanpur section of Howrah–Delhi main line and Howrah–Gaya–Delhi line Mughalsarai Junction to Sitarampur via Howrah–Delhi main line Chandauli Majhwar Karmanasa River Uttar Pradesh Bihar border Bhabua Road Sasaram Junction to Ara Dehri-on-Sone Nehru Setu bridge across Son River Son Nagar to Barkakana Anugrah Narayan Road Gaya Junction Asansol–Gaya section Gaya Junction Patna–Gaya line Falgu River Gaya–Kiul line Bihar Jharkhand border Gujhandi to Tilaiya (under construction) Koderma Junction to Hazaribagh Town to Madhupur Barakar River Hazaribagh Road Parasnath NSC Bose Gomoh to Bokaro Steel City to Adra Dhanbad Barakar River Jharkhand West Bengal border to Mughalsarai via Howrah–Delhi main line Asansol Junction to Howrah km

Grand Chord is part of the Howrah–Gaya–Delhi line and Howrah–Prayagraj–Mumbai line. It acts as a link between Sitarampur, (Asansol), (West Bengal) and Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, (Uttar Pradesh), previously known as Mughalsarai Junction, and covers a stretch of 450.7 km (280.1 mi). The Coal India Corridor line that branches off from Dhanbad Junction and rejoins the Grand Chord at Son Nagar Junction is another major coal loading hub. It is a fully electrified, quadruple line section from Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay to Son Nagar and double line section from Son Nagar to Sitarampur . There are plans to triple the lines from Son Nagar to Dhanbad to accommodate the increasing traffic. . The entire line lies under the jurisdiction of three divisions, Mughalsarai railway division , Dhanbad railway division and Asansol railway division. The Grand chord section is the lifeline of the country, 2nd busiest railway section of India after Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh to Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, Uttar Pradesh (previously known as Mughalsarai Junction) Main Line section, on which coal, steel and other important goods are moved from Eastern section to Western and Northern sections of the country. In the down direction, the traffic consists of mostly food grains, fertilizers and empty wagons for coal loading in the Jharkhand and West Bengal coal fields. Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction is a transit division and the main objective is to maintain mobility of high density traffic. The present capacity of the Grand Chord is being optimally utilized. Traversing through Chota Nagpur Plateau of Jharkhand as well as parts of the fertile Gangetic plains of Bihar, the Grand Chord covers a stretch of 450.7 km (280.1 mi). The Grand Chord is renowned for its remarkable controlling of passenger traffic, despite being burdened with freight traffic.

The railways first came to eastern India in 1854, and the Calcutta–Delhi railway link, with a distance of more than 1,642 km (1,020 mi), became operational by 1866. With the increase in traffic it became necessary to construct an alternative route.

With this in view, the Grand Chord section was planned. The Grand Chord section was opened in December 1906 by Lord Minto, then Viceroy and Governor-General of India with a function at Gujahandi. With the opening of the Grand Chord route, the distance between Calcutta and Delhi was reduced by 192 km (119 mi). The cost of construction was around ₹415 lakh (equivalent to ₹14 billion or US$170 million in 2023).

The Grand Chord section is critically important even today, handling major passenger trains on the Howrah–Delhi route, particularly all the Rajdhani Expresses from Howrah, Bhubaneswar and Ranchi and the entire freight traffic, particularly coal, handled by the Dhanbad division of East Central Railway.

Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) encompasses a double-line electrified traction corridor from Haldia on the Eastern Railway to Khurja on the North Central Railway (1,270 km or 790 mi) via Grand Chord, Khurja to Dadri on NCR double-line electrified corridor (46 km or 29 mi) and Single electrified line from Khurja to Ludhiana (412 km or 256 mi) on Northern Railway. The total length works out to 1,379 km (857 mi). So in the Grand Chord section its total 4 parallel track will be run to ease traffic movement on this busy route.

The EDFC will traverse 6 states and is projected to cater to a number of traffic streams – coal for the power plants in the northern region of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and parts of Rajasthan from the Eastern coal fields, finished steel, food grains, cement, fertilizers, limestone from Rajasthan to steel plants in the east and general goods. The total traffic in UP direction is projected to go up from 38 million tonnes in FY2005-06 to 116 million tonnes in FY2021–22.

Trains on the route

In c. 1970, it was said that a goods train passes by every 20 minutes on the Grand Chord line. Now, the frequency has become around 5 minutes making it one of the busiest routes in India. More than 50 mail and express trains use this shorter route apart from 2 dozens of passenger trains.

Some important trains on the route

1. Howrah Rajdhani Express (via Gaya)
2. Sealdah Rajdhani Express
3. Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express (via Bokaro, Tatanagar)
4. Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express (via Adra)
5. Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express (via Sambalpur)
6. Ranchi Rajdhani Express (via Bokaro, Gaya)
7. Ranchi Rajdhani Express (via Daltonganj)
8. Howrah–Ranchi Shatabdi Express (via Bokaro, Dhanbad)
9. Howrah–New Delhi Duronto Express
10. Bhubaneswar–Duronto Express
11. Sealdah–Bikaner Duronto Express
12. Patna–Ranchi Vande Bharat Express
13. Sealdah-Jammu Tawi Humsafar Express
14. Godda-New Delhi Humsafar Express
15. Ranchi–New Delhi Garib Rath Express
16. Howrah–Anand Vihar Yuva Express
17. West Bengal Sampark Kranti Express
18. Odisha Sampark Kranti Express
19. Jharkhand Sampark Kranti Express
20. Gaya–Anand Vihar Garib Rath Express
21. Howrah–Jodhpur Express
22. Ajmer–Sealdah Express
23. Kalka Mail – The oldest running passenger train of India
24. Poorva Express (via Gaya)
25. Garbha Express
26. Howrah–Jaisalmer Superfast Express
27. Purushottam Express
28. Ara–Ranchi Express
29. Parasnath Express
30. Howrah–Gwalior Chambal Express
31. Howrah–Agra Cantt/Mathura Chambal Express
32. Howrah–Indore Junction Shipra Express
33. Jharkhand Swarna Jayanti Express (via Bokaro)
34. Mahabodhi Express
35. Deekshabhoomi Express
36. Gaya–Chennai Egmore Weekly Superfast Express
37. Howrah–Bhopal Weekly Express
38. Doon Express
39. Neelachal Express (Via. Bokaro)
40. Nandankanan Express (Via. Adra)
41. Patna–Hatia Express
42. Shalimar (Howrah) Express
43. Pratap Express
44. Black Diamond Express
45. Coalfield Express
46. Patna - Ranchi Janshatabdi Express
47. Purnia Court - Hatia Kosi Express
48. Sealdah–Amritsar Jallianwalla Bagh Express
49. Tatanagar–Amritsar Jallianwalla Bagh Express
50. Kolkata Mail via Allahabad
51. Ganga Damodar Express
52. Ganga Sutlej Express
53. Garib Nawaz Express
54. Howrah–Ranchi Intercity Express via Adra
55. Dhanbad–Patna Intercity Express
56. Dhanbad–Gaya Intercity Express
57. Patna–Bhabua Road Intercity Express
58. Howrah–Ranchi Intercity Express via Tatanagar
59. Ranchi–Varanasi Express
60. Ranchi–Kamakhya Express
61. Shaktipunj Express
62. Haldia–Anand Vihar Terminal Superfast Express
63. Bhubaneswar–Anand Vihar Weekly Superfast Express via Sambalpur, Rourkela, Bokaro
64. Shabd Bhedi Superfast Express
65. Howrah–Lalkuan Express
66. Durgiana Express
67. Kolkata–Agra Cantonment Express
68. Kolkata–Agra Cantonment Superfast Express
69. Santragachi–Anand Vihar Superfast Express
70. Jasidih–Pune weekly Express
71. Shalimar-Gorakhpur Weekly Express
72. Gaya-Lucknow Ekatmata Express
73. Jasidih–Vasco-Da-Gama weekly Express